GO
August 28, 2009
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. (Gen 12:1)
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 28:19)
The Bible is full of wild stories that encourage us to live differently. One word, however, stands as a clarion call to God’s work of transformation in the world. The word is “Go.” It may take some adjustment on our part to realize this, but nothing of God’s Kingdom happens unless someone is willing to Go.
Sometimes GOING will require a 30-second e-mail to encourage a friend, a five-minutes walk across the street to help a neighbor, or the willingness to give up a quiet evening with your spouse in exchange for inviting some friends over who don’t know Christ. Other times, GOING may require a week-long commitment, a large chuck of money, or even a lifelong commitment to leave your city or country to serve God.
Whatever the case, the word GO will cost you something. It will require that you creatively look for the opportunities that God provides you to leave what’s natural and self-serving in order to extend his love to others. From The Tangible Kingdom Primer
Where may God want to send you today? What would it cost you to GO? What adjustments may need to be made? Is it possible to follow Jesus without GOING?
Your Family an Incarnational Community
August 14, 2009
Here is an encouraging story I recently received from a good friend of mine. She is the mother of four whose husband works for Sprint. Their family is part of a missional community wrestling to discover what it looks like in tangible ways to be a representation of God’s Kingdom on earth now.
“Over four years ago our small group from church decided that it would be great to go and serve together. We set up a date to bring a meal to the Ronald McDonald House, and since then have come back every month to help out. ( provides a temporary home for families with children who are critically ill or seriously injured) Through the years we have become friends with several families who call Ronald McDonald House their home away from home. One of my favorite stories to share about RMH is the night my 5 year old son, Cooper, was playing with a little boy who has cancer and was undergoing chemo. They were laughing and pretending to jump like frogs when the little boy began to cough and wanted his mother to hold him. Cooper then reached up and began to rub his back to calm him. He was learning what it meant to “be Jesus” someone in pain.. The mother looked at me with tears in her eyes and my heart broke for this family.
Another image that sticks in my mind is Dave going around the room loving each and every one of the families who are there. You can see the pain and confused look in the parent’s eyes as they struggle to make sense of suffering their child is enduring. But Dave sits with each one of them. He doesn’t say much, but he listens a lot. With great compassion, he enters into their pain. As he listen’s he writes down their name and prayer request. Sometimes he prays for them then and there but usually he brings the request to the next time our small group gathers and there we will remember and pray for the families together. As I continue to look around the room at RMH I’m encouraged as I see my family and friends “being Jesus” to these families who are going through circumstances too horrible for my mind to fully understand. I pray that somehow the small acts of love being performed by our small community of friends will somehow make a difference. What a blessing Ronald McDonald House is to us all.”
What strikes you about this story?
How do you imagine experiences like going to Ronald McDonald House will shape and form young kids like Cooper?
Mark 3: 13-19
August 1, 2009
13 Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. 14 He appointed twelve [a] that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach 15 and to have authority to drive out demons. 16 These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17 James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18 Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. Mark 3:13-19
I think it is safe to say that when Mark writes that Jesus was up on the mountain he is telling his audience that Jesus was in communion with the Father. Luke’s version adds “to pray”. Matthew paints Jesus as the new Moses who is with God on the Mountain. In other words I think it is extremely important to notice that the appointment of the 12 was birthed out of prayer and intimacy with God. “Appointed” is literally “he made.”
Jesus appoints the 12 with a double assignment; “to be with him and to be sent out”. At first these two assignments appear to be mutually exclusively (and we sometimes still treat them this way), but I don’t think the disciples need to choose between being with Jesus or being sent out. Joseph Ratzinger writes, “They must be with him in order to get to know him; in order to attain that intimate acquaintance with him that could not be given to the “people”-who saw him only from the outside and took him for a prophet, a great figure in the history of religions, but were unable to perceive his uniqueness (Matt. 16:13).”
Being with Jesus and being sent by him clearly belong together. The Apostles have to learn to be with him in a way that enables them, even when they go to the ends of the earth, to be with him still. Being with him includes the missionary dynamic by its very nature, since Jesus’ whole being is mission.”
The first task they they are given is preaching. to announce the Good News of God’s in breaking kingdom. However, the preaching of God’s Kingdom is never just words, never just instruction. It is an incarnational event, just like Jesus, God’s Word is person.
In your experience has “being with Jesus” been fused together with “being sent out?”
How have you been able to keep from separating worship and evangelism?
Can the two even be separated without damaging the integrity of both?
For more thoughts along these lines check out Jesus of Nazareth by Joseph Ratzinger.
Missio Dei 13
July 9, 2009
The mission of God and the people of God go together as glove and hand. It is true that God sent individual missionaries to other nations to preach repentance and righteousness and the love of God. However, the missionary was the representative of God and the people of God on mission to the nations (i.e. Jonah). Individuals who are sent are always part of the larger community of God. The community witnesses to its “sentness” by inviting, blessing, and harvesting the nations for inclusion in the kingdom of God. Behind the bringer of good news, the “blesser”, are two communities: The Trinitarian community of love and the church community the trinity inhabits. The people of God in the New Testament are represented by the church gathered/scattered as apprentices of Jesus who adopt the mission of Jesus to be grace, love, and light unto the nations, their communities, and their neighbors.
The church that does not see itself and acts as a sent people to the nations, to the peoples that surround it is not a missional church no matter what it claims. By being sent, I mean what I said above: inviting, blessing, and harvesting those who decide to obey Jesus’ invitation. Inviting the community by grace (doing for the community what the community cannot do for itself, to turn to God), blessing the community through generous self-sacrifcing actions, and harvesting winsomely those who obey and enter the kindgom.
A good indication of whether a church is actively seeking the missional posture is to see what it has budgeted of its collected resources (people, money, time, and space) to accomplish its part of the mission of God.
Prayer: Jesus, make us at missional order a community that truly lives the mission of God in whatever community we belong to. Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Rule of Benedict 33
July 6, 2009
Benedict writes in 4:48-49
Keep guard at all times over the actions of your life, knowing for certain that God sees you every where.
I didn’t grow up with this Sunday School song: O be careful little hands, feet, eyes, ears what you do, where you go, what you see, and hear for the Father up above is looking down in love… Yes indeed one must be careful. Enticements to drift away from a Jesus-abiding life are many. Outward enticements to indulge our sensual pleasures of every kind abound. Inward enticements fueled by stored memories of sinful pleasures, boredom, and a sense of entitlement or missing out, lie in wait in every nook and cranny of our heart, mind, and soul. Thus keep guard at all times is apt advice, the one necessary thing in kingdom living.
Two people I read about and read some, who have managed a keeping guard over their hearts (Proverbs 4:23) are Brother Lawrence and Frank Laubach (other than the proverb writer and of course our Master). Perhaps there are many more.
Laubach in Letters by a modern Mystic says:
As for me, I never lived, I was half dead, I was a rotting tree, until I reached the place where I wholly, with utter honesty, resolved and then re-resolved that I would find God’s will, and I would do that will though every fiber in me said no, and I would win the battle in my thoughts. It was as though some deep artesian well had been struck in my soul… and strength came forth. I do not claim success even for a day yet–in my mind, no complete success all day–but some days are closer to success, and every day is tingling with the joy of a glorious discovery. That thing is eternal. That thing is undefeatable… This spirit which comes to a mind set upon continuous surrender, this spirit is timeless life.
Does this sound doable? Is there a desire within me for this?
Laubach adds:
It seems to me now that yonder plowman could be like Calixto Sanidad, when he was a lonesome and mistreated plowboy, “with my eyes on the furrow, and my hands on the lines, but my thoughts on God.” The carpenter could be as a full of God as was Christ when he drove nails. The millions at looms and lathes could make the hours glorious. Some hour spent by some night watchman might be the most glorious ever lived on earth.
We occupy our lives with all kinds of activities. But with our thoughts we train our minds to turn upward, keeping guard over our actions because the Father up above is looking down in love to give us the desires of our hearts.
This is challenging to say the least. Keeping guard is only the starting point. The rest is to turn our minds to be stayed on Him. Much easier said than done. But willed by our Lord for us.
Prayer from Celtic Daily Prayer morning canticle:
Christ, as a light
illumine and guide me.
Christ, as a shield
overshadow me.
Christ under me;
Christ over me;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;
in the mouth of each who speaks unto me.
This day be within and without me,
lowly and meek, yet all-powerful.
Christ as a light;
Christ as a shield;
Christ beside me
on my left and my right.
Missio Dei 12
July 2, 2009
In these posts I am seeking to understand the mission of God in the world and asking God to clarify for us what it means to live this mission in a daily sacred rhythm of life.
The mission is God’s. It is only our mission in the sense that we are commissioned by God to engage the world as he does. Moses, for example, was on the mission of God to soften the heart of Pharaoh toward God and his people. Our sending into the world is his mission. If we possess it selfishly it ceases to be his mission. We strike the rock in our own strength and it yields nothing.
God is at work, his mission of having all people have the right heart toward him through his son, is also our daily engagement. When we program it or institutionalize it, it becomes ours to manage, to handle. God’s mission is always his mission. It never ceased to be his mission even when he gave us the responsibility to take it on as our mission also. It is in his name. If it is not it is not his mission but only ours, stubble and hay are plenty.
Peter in dealing with Cornelius understood that the mission he is on is God’s mission. Look at what he says to him: “You prayer has been heard and your alms have been remembered before God” (Acts 10:31). And “God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (34-35). All this was happening to Cornelius before Peter showed up. God was at work. Peter was brought by God into that work.
How then do we engage this truth daily in the local and ordinary hustle and bustle of life? We live with open eyes to see where God’s mission is going on. We jump on the opportunity where we see it going on. If we don’ recognize it, it’s not because it’s not going on, but because there is a veil over our eyes.
Prayer: So open our eyes, dear Lord, that we may see glimpses of the Missio Dei in the lives of others. Give us the will and stoke the desire in us to engage in it as we see it. Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Confession 9
June 30, 2009
Confession is an open profession of faith (Luke 12:8). It is also an acknowledgment of sins to God (Lev. 16:21; Ezra 9:5-15; Dan. 9:3-12), and to a neighbor whom we have wronged (James 5:16; Matt. 18:15) (source: dictionary.com).
There we have it.
In Exodus 19:6 Moses is given this revelation to tell the people of God: You shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Peter is given a similar revelation to give to the new people of God who follow the King of kings in the new kingdom of God: But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Israel failed to live as a set apart people in that they chose not to be different than people of other nations in the inward part. They looked different (circumcision), ate different foods, practiced their religion differently, monotheistically. But this differentness was not sufficient in itself to set them apart from the nations. Flesh circumcision is not heart circumcision.
In the church today, what applied to Israel of old applies to us. We too are citizens of a kingdom whose way of life ought to shape our daily living because it has taken deep roots in our hearts. The way our king lived the kingdom life is not evident among us. Alas! The record shows we are not that different from kingdoms that are dark. Our light is dim in many places. We do marvelous things to reflect the marvelous light of Jesus. Would to God that the day would come when all we say and do, everyone of us who claims Jesus’ lordship would reflect the Marvelous Light.
Let us profess our faith openly in a way that is seasoned with the salt of healing not the pepper of acrimony (Colossians 4:1-6). Let us acknowledge our sin before God, and our neighbor readily before we are caught and have to. Let us show that our holiness is not skin deep but heart-love deep. We must not fail. We have a stewardship from King Jesus to not fail. This is our prayer of confession, O King of eternal glory. Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Missio Dei 11
June 24, 2009
Missional Living is no special activity. Like spirituality (as per Eugene Peterson) it is local and ordinary. It is the normal Christian life (to borrow from Watchman Nee).
Local: Wherever I am. Whatever the patterns of my day-to-day life. Home, work, shop, church, club, bus, gas station, wherever. I am awake to the reality that I am an ambassador of Christ for kingdom living. Whoever is with me, before me, next to me are who I am sent to. The kingdom of God or the heavens is at hand. It is around us, it surrounds us, it is there for the taking, for the giving. I invite others into the Jesus life, which I am living. I behave in such a way that my life is inviting. I speak in such a way that my life is inviting. I enter the conversations that God has prepared for me.
Ordinary: Not special technique. No new methodology. The weather, the season, the sandwich I am eating, the book I am reading, the last mile I am jogging, whatever. It is not Tuesday night visitation, it is in the daily routines of life. The door opens. Serendipity. I act shrewdly as a serpent. I act harmlessly as a dove. I am awake to my surroundings. I pray for opportunity. I pray for God to make himself known in every situation. Didn’t our hearts get warmer when he spoke to us?
Normal. Not heroic. Not extra effort. Not extraordinary. It’s the way to live the dailiness of life as I live in Christ. Normal, open, genuine, unpretentious, always pointing upward. Take cookies to new neighbors, invite kids to come in for milk and cookies, baby sit for the couple next door, water their plants when they’re gone. Do it tenderly, do it without a care expecting nothing in return. Don’t manipulate, don’t have hidden motives. Love needs no reason.
This is missional living: local, ordinary, normal Christian living.
Being the Presence of Jesus
May 22, 2009
I’ve been reading God in the Alley by Greg Paul. It has really been messing with my heart and head. Early in the book he tells Neil’s Story. Neil has AIDS. Greg, the author of the book tells how he signed up to be a “buddy and gofer” for Neil. Over time the relationship moves from being cold and formal to being warm and genuine. In short, they become friends. Then one morning Greg stops by to visit Neil. As he enters the hot and humid room he discovers Neil “writhing in a soundless panic, half sitting up, his pajama bottoms and the bed sheets wound around his ankles, his spindly arms flailing in a futile effort to free himself, a look of sheer terror on his face. He had soiled himself, and it was everywhere. He was disoriented, uncertain where he was or what was happening to him.”
Once Greg is able to free Neil from the tangled mess, he begins to calm down. Greg then carries Neil to the tub. While Neil soaks Greg proceeds to change the soiled sheets before coming back to dress Neil in clean pajamas and carry him back to his bed. Greg comments, “He seemed almost weightless, just bones shrink-wrapped with grayish skin. His temples were hollow, and his teeth seemed too large for his face.”
As Greg begins to tuck Neils feet into the bed, he notices that one of Neils feet was not completely clean. Greg grabs a wash cloth and begins to wipe that foot. In his own word’s Greg describes what happens next, “As I did so, I was struck by what I can only describe as a powerful revelation, two streams of thought converging, and both seeming to me to be the voice of God. Cradling his foot in my hands, my mind was filed with the image of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper, a towel around his waist, determinedly taking the servant’s role. I had been meditating on the story from John’s gospel just the day before, and now I could almost see Jesus hunched over Peter’s foot, his hair hanging forward and obscuring his face, quietly insisting against Peter’s protestations that those feet, but only the feet, needed to be washed. This moment was what my whole time with Neil had been for! This was what it meant to be the presence of Christ. I had been looking for opportunities to preach, wanting to effect a clear and possibly dramatic conversion. I realized in that moment that my longing for those things was as much or more an indication of my desire to be successful as they were of my passion for Neils’ soul. It became clear that, being Jesus to Neil, while it certainly included praying for him, and announcing the good news to him, was most perfectly summed up by the mundane and even odious task of gently wiping excrement from his foot.”
Missio Dei 10
May 13, 2009
Did Jesus live missionally? What counts in the life of Jesus as missional activity besides the incarnation, death and resurrection?
The answer to the question is yes if by living missionally we mean that Jesus both lived and died for his mission (Romans 5:10 says that Jesus’ life and death are salvific). Jesus did indeed live missionally and thus he lived and died 1) to rescue humanity and the cosmos from utter lostness, 2) to restore everything on earth and in the universe to its original created order because it is cracked, 3) to create a covenant community (the church) that lives and breathes his life, and 4) to instill in us an active hopefulness that at his coming he will consummate his mission in the world and with his bride, the church, by making all things new.
Corporately and individually, Christ followers cannot simply be satisfied by random acts of kindness, periodic fores into the community, or going overseas to build a church building, or prayerwalk. That’s a good start. But our mission is full participation in the comprehensive plan of God to put the world back to rights and everything in it. We do it not only periodically but “second-naturally.” Whatever we do we do to the glory of God. We buy missionally (1-4 above), we vote missionally, we eat missionnally, we play missionally, we engage in our work life or leisurely life missionally.
Missio Dei 9
May 7, 2009
From the Road to Peace comes this quote of Henri Nouwen about the connection between prayer and serving others.
You must make the connection between prayer and life. The closer you are to the heart of God, the closer you come to the heart of the world, the closer you come to others. God is a demanding God, but when you give your heart to God, you find your heart’s desires. You will also find (unto the least of these, unto me) your brother and sister right there. We’re called always to action, but that action must not be driven, obsessive, or guilt-ridden. Basically, it’s action that comes out of knowing God’s love. You want to be with the poor because with them you’re not trying to please the world and be accepted….
Our spirituality should come from living deeply with the poor [perfect integration of prayer and action]. A spirituality of being with vulnerable people and of being vulnerable to them–that’s the great journey!
Also from Nouwen come these nuggets: What real and gutsy praying does is to move us to the center of all life and all love Prayer and action … can never be seen as contradictory or mutually exclusive.
Missional living is a combination of action and contemplation. What do you think of the term “Contemplaction?”
What’s your reputation?
May 1, 2009
I was poking around on the website for Adullum, an incarnational community that has taken up residency throughout the Denver area, when I was reminded of this amazing quote by Roman Emperor Julian,
Atheism (Christianity) has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not one single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.
It appears the early church was known by the way she loved strangers.
She was know in the way she loved and cared for those forgotten and left alone.
She had the reputation for extending love to those who played on the other team.
What is the reputation of the church in America today? If a leader in you city were to write down the first three things that came to mind when they thought about your church, would their list describe Jesus?
CDP 1
May 1, 2009
CDP is acronym for Celtic Daily Prayer. Today’s Scripture reading and reflection are encouraging to me.
The Bible Verse: Genesis 26:12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him.
L’ABRI
But in addition to these conversations and discussions, something else was happening.
People were finding it hard to ’shake off’ what they were living through.
They were there while we were praying for things that they later found had been given …
They were being given (not by us, but by God’s answers to prayers) a demonstration that God exists …
It was a combination which could never be ‘planned’ or ‘put on’ as an exhibit … it had to be real.
… a completely new work … would never have been possible if we had not been uprooted completely in every way, and if in that uprooting we had not decided to pray for God’s solution and leading every step of the path as it wound through unknown territory.
We also prayed that if it grew, God would send us the workers of His choice, rather than our trying to advertise or get people to help us … So not to advertise, but simply to pray that God will send those of His choice, and keep others away, is a different way of doing things.
We don’t say everyone ought to work this way, we simply say we feel we were led by God to do this as a demonstration that He is able to bring the people to a place - even a tiny out-of-the-way place … and only to bring the ones He wants to have there for His purposes.
Edith Schaeffer
Missional Order is our planting a crop for the Lord, it is our L’Abri. We pray that the blessing of God will be upon each visitor and that our efforts yield a hundred fold fruit for the sake of God and others. Amen.
Shaped by the Story
April 17, 2009
What happens when we read Scripture as God’s Story and with great determination figure out how to insert our lives into that Story, rather than trying to figure out when and where we can fit God into our busy lives?
In his book, Shaped by the Story, Michael Novelli provides the following summary of God’s story with the thread of kingdom running throughout.
“From the very beginning’s of the story, God expresses a desire to live in close harmony with God’s creation and for God’s creation to enjoy his kingdom rule. God created humans as image-bearers of the divine, continuing God’s creativity and care of creation on earth. Then humans decided to create their own kingdoms, where they could live according to their own desires.
So God set in motion a kingdom agenda to restore creation to wholeness. Story after Bible story describes the amazing lengths God went to in order to extend grace to us-to give humans opportunities to reconnect our broken relationship with him. God even came and dwelled with the Jewish nation-a community God chose to distinctly live while reflecting the ways of God the King.
The apex of the kingdom storyline is found in Jesus. Jesus announced the kingdom of God breaking into history, displaying God’s restorative power in his life, miracles, and words. At the cross Jesus gained decisive victory over evil for us, liberating us from the power of sin. Then Jesus entered as the firstborn into the -resurrection life of restored creation. God’s Spirit was sent to continue the restorative work, empowering a global community of people called the church to embody God’s kingdom, join in God’s actions, and tell God’s Story. to the world.
How is your faith community emodying God’s kingdom in your community? How do you see your church fitting into God’s redemptive story? What “part” or “role” will you “act out” today?
Are you attractive?
April 10, 2009
“as I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract everyone to me.” - Jesus
To be “lited up” was a nice way of reffering to being tortured to death on a Roman stake. Jesus in his humiliating death became attractive. It wasn’t power, but weakness. It wasn’t in dominating, but in being troutured that Jesus became attractive, compelling. I don’t follow this “way.” I seek power and control as neceesary means to being attractive (liked by others ). Churches and organizations I have been a part of have sought to be excellent, succesful, and the best in an effort to be popular. This seems contrary to the way of Jesus.
Another thing that strikes me is just what is attractive? In John’s telling it is Jesus. Are we supposed to develop programs and services that are “attractive” or are we, the community of Jesus, the tangible body of Christ on the earth to be attractive? I believe we are to be attractive and not because we have it all together, have power or control of things or are able to manage life well. Our attractiveness comes, when like Jesus, we are “lifted up from the earth” as an offering and sacrifice to God. The churches attractiveness should be in her (people’s) willingness to choose and embrace suffering for the sake of the world, which itself is broken and suffering. We will be attractive when we love and serve rather than judge and ignore.
Lord be gracious to me, that I may be crucified with you and may you be my strength springing up out of my weakness. Grant me the grace to embrace those who are suffering. Allow me to be part of a community that chooses suffering over comfort and that places others before self.
Missio Dei 7
April 9, 2009
What does solitude have to do with being missional?
It seems, I am not sure, that many of the missional activities of Christ were preceded by times of solitude. Some seem sandwiched between times of solitude. Before choosing the disciples for their mission of representing his rule in this world we find him alone with God, his Abba. Before engaging in ministries of healing, feeding, teaching about the reign of God, he goes off into some solitary place to reflect and be. Between the last supper and the greatest of the missional acts ever known, dying for us, we see him in solitude, leaving all his life in the hands of the Father.
Being missional happens in the rhythm between activity and a soul nourishing solitude.
This week, a friend of the family I have been directing to Jesus to become his disciple, coming to church with our family, and just starting to read the Bible for the first time in his life, popped these questions in an email: How do I know I have found Jesus, and how do I accept him? One of my daughters had told him about accepting Jesus. Wow, I said to myself? After only a short time, a couple of outings together doing life with me, and without any religious background, this friend knows to ask these questions? How do I good news him without trivializing the experience by the premature saying of a prayer? My tendency, for this is how I was evangelized, was to quote him a few verses from that famous road tract to logically prove he was a sinner, repeat the sinner’s prayer after me, and pronounce him a Christian ready for heaven on the next train.
Instead, I retreated into my closet for a couple of days to ask Jesus how to gospel my friend. And so we did get together, talked at length about the will of God, and debriefed what he was experiencing, turned his questions around: How do you know that Jesus found you, and has accepted you? Answered those questions. He was experiencing the proof and results of these questions by reading Scripture that were getting his attention about his condition in life. I confirmed and affirmed his questions and experience. I encouraged him to continue reading and asking, knocking, and seeking. I also told him about the way I used to do this kind of thing and encouraged him to continue on the never ending path of becoming Christian. We talked about the conversion of Ruth and how it was about adopting a new way of life, God, a community, for life.
That was a lot to think about and we left it there, after prayer of thanksgiving, and for God to continue to draw him unto himself. I am in constant contact with this friend and our relationship allows for ease of back and forth with questions.
The funny thing is: I kept thinking during our discussion that I got to seal this deal by asking him to pray the sinner’s prayer. What use is my EE training if I don’t do it the prescribed way? Finally the other way prevailed. My wife who was listening in with our grandson, thought it was a most natural way of doing things like this. I can hardly wait for him to ask about baptism. Then I’ll have to go into solitude again and see what Jesus would say to him. Meanwhile, we will do a few things together, invite him to our house at every opportunity, etc…
Being missional is a way of life, part of the rhythm of life, that is lived between solitude and “gospeling” others. Until it becomes that, it remains shallow.
What do you think?
Missio Dei 6
April 1, 2009
10 ways NOT to live missionally.
1. Live as if the only soul that matters to God is your own.
2. Busy yourself with what matters very little in the kingdom of God.
3. Seek all the things that you need first, then seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
4. Believe that the power of God resides in the Gospel, but evangelize and disciple others as if that were not true by using consumerist means.
5. Don’t pray for neighbors.
6. Use the Scripture as an instrument to judge rather than to motivate loving actions and good works toward neighbors.
7. Model a lone ranger approach to evangelize without connection to a close knit community.
8. Depend on the preacher to get it done. After all we’re not all learned and gifted to live missional lives.
9. Promise heaven to motivate acceptance of the claims of Christ rather than a life with God in the here and now that looks forward to eternal life with God.
10. Believe as if God bypasses the believing community in drawing the non-believing community unto himself.
Let’s make it 20 ways not to live missionally. What would you add?
Missio Dei 5
March 26, 2009
I have borrowed this quote from my friend, Brad Brisco at Missional Church Network.
“The first step in maintaining or getting a sense of mission for oneself is to feel the sweep and power of Jesus’ own sense of mission.”
– Albert Curry Winn in “A Sense of Mission: Guidance from the Gospel of John”
Now reflect on the Apostle’s Creed’s missional ethos: What speaks to you of the missio dei in the Apostle’s Creed?
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead and buried:
He ascended into hell;
The Third day He rose from the dead;
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit:
The holy catholic church,
The communion of the saints:
The forgiveness of sins:
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting. Amen.
I think this Creed (what the early Christians believed) is passionately missional. It has a “for the sake of others” in every word, sentence, and section. Whether it is the fatherhood of God (the begetting of children in the likeness of His Son), or the “Sentness” of Jesus which translates in incarnational realities, or the actions of the Holy Spirit in his world, everything here speaks of the mission God is on: Restoring his creation, and everything in it, down to the last one of us into a loving relationshiop with himself. The earliest Christians were not only articulating their “beliefs” or mental assents to the truth they thought about. They were fleshing out their drivenness by the Holy Spirit to go to the whole world, with the passion of knowing the purposes of God for it in Christ, in the Holy Spirit.
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